Part Two, Chapter Twelve

The sun had barely risen over the horizon when Donovan stumbled in the door, reeling with drink and exhaustion. He was hungry, rumpled and dirty, but his pockets were heavy. He leaned against the door and murmured a prayer of thanks to his personal gambling deities. As an afterthought, he added a silent, fervent hope that Carina hadn't noticed his absence. Moving slowly so his pockets wouldn't jingle, he peeked inside the bedroom door. She lay with her back to him, seemingly asleep, but as he tried to think how he would get undressed and climb into bed without waking her, she rolled over and opened her eyes. From the cool way she appraised him, it was obvious she had been awake for awhile.

"Where have you been?"

"Out."

"I can't believe you'd go carousing when—"

"No, Carina. It wasn't like that."

She sat up and pulled the folds of the blanket around her. "What else is one to think when a man stays out all night?"

"I had things to do."

"In the middle of the night in a strange town?" She reached for the new black dressing robe lying across the chair by her bed. "That sounds like whores, cards and drinking to me."

"Not whores," Donovan assured her. "Absolutely not whores."

"So just cards and drinking."

"Yes." When she still looked unconvinced, he sat on his unused bed. "We were out of money. I had to get us some more."

"By playing cards."

"You know that's how I get my money."

"I thought you just stole."

"Thanks a lot."

"So you don't steal?"

"Not always. Okay, I picked a couple pockets, too. But most of the money I won."

"Won honestly?"

"Sometimes."

Carina stalked into the bathroom where she splashed some water on her face, then she went back into the bedroom and dug in her bag for the makeup Amalia had insisted on packing. "Did Alvi go with you?"

"No. Don’t say anything to him, because he worries himself to death over you. He'll want to know why I didn't ask him to stay with you."

She examined her makeup kit as if rouging her cheeks and applying mascara was an overwhelming chore. "We don't need these kinds of entanglements, Donovan. How did we manage to run out of money already, with Alvi paying for so much?"

"I don't think you realize how expensive those clothes were. And then there's this room and quartering the animals...yes, Alvi has been helping, but I don't feel comfortable with the way he tries to buy everything.”

"Why not?"

"A man has his pride." Donovan went into the bathroom to wash up. The cold water felt good on his face, but he would need hot water for shaving. Maybe there was some place he could go for a shave before they had to be at the base. He should've asked Alvi about that. Maybe one of the vendors he had seen setting up coffee by the cab stand would know. "I'm going downstairs. Do you want anything?"

Carina looked up from toying with a lipstick. "No. I'll make us some coffee, though."

"I'll buy us some."

"I thought money was a problem."

Exasperated, Donovan began pulling things out of his pockets and laying them on the bed in front of her: gold, silver, federal bills and coins, ration books, and a man's gold ring. "I can afford to buy you a cup of coffee, Carina."

She sucked in her breath. "This is so wrong. Why do you do it?"

"How else am I supposed to get money? Should I have hauled my share of this year's crops to town and tried to sell them? I couldn't have done it even if I wanted to. They don't need our stuff. They've got the ranches and the train."

"But it's heartless to steal, and we've got other resources. I'm going to get a settlement today. It won't be much, and it'll be in federal scrip, but..."

"That's your money."

"I can pay you back for the clothes, at least."

"Some of that came from your money anyway, or don't you remember? No, I guess you don't. You weren’t paying much attention when Amalia and I tried to figure out what we would need for this trip." Donovan gathered his money. "But I wouldn't let you pay, anyway. Sometimes a man likes to buy things for a pretty woman."

Carina peeked into her compact mirror. "I'm not pretty this morning."

"You are to me." He said the words without thinking, and their eyes met. Donovan looked away first. He grabbed a handful of federal coins and shoved them in his pocket. "I'm going to get some breakfast." He had his hand on the door when Carina called his name.

"If you still want to buy me a cup of coffee," she said, "I’d like that very much."

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